Chapter 4

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Four

¹ Chapter Four. Now I say that, for as long a time as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. That is, the father has ordained that he should administer nothing until the lawful age, and he must be content with this.

² So we also, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Children, not in age, but in the knowledge concerning God. And by “elements of the world” he means the new moons and the sabbaths; for these days come to us from the course of the moon and the sun. So that those who now lead us under the law make us children, and place us under the elements of the world—and that, though we have become men and perfect, and sons of God, and masters of households, and lords. And we learn that God, on the one hand, wished from the beginning to give the adoption as sons (for this is the inheritance), but our childhood hindered it. And since he wished thoroughly to overthrow the law, he did not say, “We were in bondage to the days,” but, Under the elements of the world, so as the more to put to shame those who were still persuading them to give heed to the law. And do not be troubled if, by what follows, the elements are understood as the guardians and stewards. For, first, you ought to understand the law as the guardian, just as also the schoolmaster, and not these things; and, in the next place, he called the new moons and the sabbaths “elements.” Besides, he said it thus also in order, out of abundance, to draw them away from the law and to put them to shame, as he will show still more clearly as he proceeds. But some have understood “elements” to mean the elementary and introductory law.

³ But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. For a while, then, being children, we were under new moons and sabbaths; but when the appointed time of the incarnation of Christ came—when human nature, having run through every kind of wickedness, was in need of healing—God sent forth his Son (that is, he was well pleased that he should come); made, he did not say “through a woman,” lest those should find a means who say that the Lord passed through the Virgin as through a channel, entirely in appearance; but, Of a woman; that is, taking a body from her very substance, and being the fruit of her womb. And he became under the law, being circumcised and fulfilling all things, that, having come to be outside the curse, he might redeem us. And he speaks of two achievements of the incarnation of Christ: both the redeeming of us from the curse of the law, and the restoring of the adoption as sons. And he said we might receive, showing that this was owed to us from of old and out of promise, even if it was not given on account of our childhood. For indeed the inheritance promised to Abraham was the adoption as sons. For it is the son who inherits.

⁴ And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then also an heir—an heir indeed of God, and a fellow-heir of Christ. How, he says, is it plain that we have been deemed worthy of the adoption as sons? He demonstrated it indeed even before, when he showed us to have put on Christ, who is the Son; but he shows it now also, from our having received the Spirit, who prepares us to call God Father, laying hold of our hearts in a divine and wholly new manner. And this would not have come to pass unless we had been deemed worthy of the adoption as sons. So that, since we are sons and heirs—not of ordinary things, but of the things of God—and sharers with the Only-begotten, why do we again become servants, and set aside the faith that adopted us as sons, by giving heed to the law?

⁵ But at that time, indeed, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those which by nature are not gods. Here he turns his discourse toward those who had believed from among the Gentiles, showing that the observance of days is also idolatry, and that they sin more grievously than of old. Of old, he says, you did not know God, inasmuch as you were darkened and led astray; and on this account you were in bondage to the sun and the moon, which by nature are not gods. But now, after the recognition of the truth, if you observe days, you do nothing else than render service to the elements, and the impiety is worse.

⁶ But now, having come to know God, or rather having been known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you wish to be in bondage over again? But now, he says, you have come to know God—or rather, it is not you who found and recognized God by your own labor (for you did not even seek him at all), but he himself sought you and took you to himself while you were passing your life in deep darkness. For having been known stands in place of, Having been taken up by God. How, then, do you turn again to the beggarly and weak elements? That is, to the things that have no power toward the good things set before us, nor strength to profit us spiritually? And at the same time, as being bereft of mind, and of perception, and of life, he calls these things beggarly and weak, even though the Greeks may be displeased. The false apostles, then, as champions of the law, were introducing the observances of days; but he, most wisely, calls the matter idolatry, which the law itself also forbids. So that those who teach these things are opposed even to the law.

⁷ You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. From these things it is plain that the false apostles were proclaiming not only circumcision, but also the feasts and the new moons.

⁸ I am afraid for you, lest somehow I have labored over you in vain. Behold his tender affection: they are being shaken, and Paul is afraid. And the word lest somehow shows that they were still surviving, and had not yet been utterly shipwrecked; and he gives them hope that, if they were willing to come back to sobriety, the labor expended upon them would not have been in vain. As though, then, he says to them: Remember my labors for you, and do not bring my labors to nothing.

⁹ Become as I am, for I also am as you are. He says these things to those who were from among the Jews: namely, Imitate me. For I too was exceedingly inflamed for the law, as you are; but I let it go, and now I fight on behalf of Christ and the faith—such become you also. And he has set this down later with good reason. For men are drawn more by examples of their own kind than by reasonings.

¹⁰ Brethren, I beseech you, you have not wronged me at all. Since he had taken hold of them very severely, he wishes to soften matters. For neither is severe rebuke profitable, nor is complete indulgence. Therefore he also calls them brethren, at the same time reminding them of the grace of baptism, out of which we all became brethren, as from one Father, God. And he makes a defense also concerning the things that were said, that they were not spoken out of hostility. For you have not wronged me at all, that I should bear myself toward you as an enemy; but rather you displayed toward me countless works of honor and grace. How, then, could I have said these things out of hostility? But plainly because I care for you, and wish rather to make return of favor.

¹¹ You know that it was because of an infirmity of the flesh that I preached the Gospel to you the first time; and you did not despise nor reject the temptation that was in my flesh. You know, he says, that it was with infirmity of the flesh—that is, with persecutions and dangers—that I preached the Gospel to you, and not even so did you turn away from me; nor did this temptation of mine—that is, the persecutions, and the scourgings, and such things—cause you to stumble, or make you despise and reject me. And at the same time he secretly puts them to shame, showing how much he suffered at the hands of his adversaries for their sake.

¹² But you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. So greatly, he says, did you honor me, as one greater than according to man. How, then, is it not absurd that at that time, when I was persecuted and driven out, you received me as an angel and as Christ, and were not made to stumble; but now, when I counsel you the things that are needful, you reckon me as an enemy, and do not receive me?

¹³ What then was your blessedness? He is at a loss and astonished, and he says: What has become of your blessedness? That is, Where has all that gone, for which you were counted blessed by all, as lovers of your teacher? What, then, is it now? Into what has that blessedness of yours been changed? For now I do not see it, since you are disposed toward me in a contrary way.

¹⁴ For I bear you witness that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. You held me even more precious than your own eyes, for the sake of the preaching. What, then, has happened, that now you even suspect me as an enemy? For it is absurd that one so honored by you should say these things to you out of a hostile mind.

¹⁵ Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? I know, he says, no other cause of enmity than that I told you the truth, and reproved you as men being corrupted concerning the doctrines. But on this account I rather ought to have been loved the more by you, as one who has done the work of a guardian.

¹⁶ They are zealous for you, but not honorably; rather, they wish to shut you out, that you may be zealous for them. Zeal is good when one imitates the virtue of another; but zeal is not good when one is eager to cast out from virtue the one who is doing rightly. These men, then, are eager to shut you out—that is, to cast you out of the most perfect condition and knowledge that is in Christ, and to cast you into the more imperfect condition that is in the law—so that you may honor them as teachers, and be zealous for them and imitate them, as disciples.

¹⁷ But I, on the contrary, wished that you should be even now leaders for them toward the more perfect things. Which indeed also came to pass, when I was with you. And he hints at these things in what follows.

¹⁸ But it is good to be zealously sought after in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. Do you see that he hints at this, namely, that they were objects of zeal to all on account of their perfection while the Apostle was present? And he hints also at this, that his absence wrought these things. Blessed, then, he says, is it when, not only while the teacher is present, but also while he is absent, the disciples are minded as they ought.

¹⁹ My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. He imitates a mother trembling over her children. You have corrupted, he says, the form of Christ which you had within yourselves from baptism, and you need again another regeneration and refashioning, so that the form of Christ may again come to be in you, in such a way that you are stamped with his character. For again I am in travail of you—that is, through teaching I again beget you. For I do not despair. On this account also I call you little children, that you yourselves may not despair. And this too is against the Novatians; for Paul is again in travail of the Galatians and refashions them, but those men do not accept the correction that comes from repentance.

²⁰ I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice, for I am perplexed about you. I am not content with letters, but I could wish both to be present and to change my voice—that is, to turn it into wailings and lamentations. For indeed I am perplexed what to say concerning you: how it is that you who were so exalted as even to be endangered for the faith, and to work signs through the faith, are now being dragged down into the cheapness of the law. On this account, then, I could wish, being present, to lament over you. For whenever we are at a loss, we are wont to fall into tears.

²¹ Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Since he had sufficiently softened them and drawn them to himself, he enters again into the contests, showing that the law itself does not wish to be observed; and he says: Answer me. And he said well, who wish. For the matter was not one of the natural sequence of things, but of their own untimely contentiousness. And by “the law” he means the book of Genesis; for it is his custom to call the whole of the Old Testament “law.”

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by the bondwoman, and one by the freewoman. He said above, You are sons of Abraham. But since the sons of the patriarch were not of the same dignity—the one being from the bondwoman, the other from the freewoman—he now shows that you are not only sons, but also such as the free and well-born one is: so did the faith ennoble you.

²³ But the one by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; the other by the freewoman, through the promise. Since, in saying that they were sons of Abraham, he seemed to be saying things hard to believe—if indeed those not born of Abraham according to the flesh are his sons—he says that even Isaac, the more proper son of Abraham, was not himself born according to the flesh either; for how could he be, when nature was deadened and the womb disabled? Rather, the Word of God and the promise fashioned him. But Ishmael was born by the sequence of nature. For this is what according to the flesh means; and yet, nevertheless, the one according to the flesh was a servant and a stranger to the inheritance, while the one not according to the flesh was master and heir. What, then, is to hinder you also, even if you have not been born of Abraham according to the flesh, from being his sons? For you too were fashioned through the words pronounced over the baptismal font.

²⁴ Which things are allegorized. That is, this history not only signifies this, but also proclaims certain other things; wherefore it is also called an allegory. For those things were a type of the things present.

²⁵ For these are the two covenants: the one indeed from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. These. Which? The two women are allegorized as referring to both the New and the Old Covenant. How? Hagar, on the one hand, refers to the Old. For indeed the law was given from Mount Sinai. And Sinai is in Arabia, and is called “Hagar” in the Arabic tongue; and it corresponds also to Jerusalem—that is, it borders upon her, or touches her, or because it is likened to the Jerusalem below, and is analogous to her, and is taken as referring to her, since there is a likeness between the two. As, then, Hagar was a bondwoman and bore children unto bondage, so also the law that is from Mount Sinai—the law of Hagar, which belongs to Jerusalem as being correspondent and analogous to her—bears unto bondage those who give heed to it. For indeed in the law there is much that is unfree and servile. For virtue was prescribed for a corruptible reward—the good things of the earth, I mean; and the avoidance of wickedness was introduced through punishments and fears.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. The type of Hagar, then, is in these things; but see also that of Sarah, for she prefigured the Jerusalem above. For that is the city of the faithful, from which also is the law for us; for the Gospel is from heaven. And it is free from the observances of the law, and orders all things freely and nobly. For nothing is accomplished by us for a visible reward, nor do bodily punishments hang over us; but the promises are more divine, and the punishments such as befit the well-born—namely, to be shut out from the mystical table, and to be censured.

²⁷ For it is written: Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in travail, for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has the husband.[1] He is not content with the types, but brings forward Isaiah also as a witness, who calls the Church from among the Gentiles barren and desolate. For indeed she was desolate of divine knowledge, and childless, having brought forth no prophet of God or teacher; whereas she who has the husband is the synagogue of the Jews, either because she had the law administering her affairs, or because she had God himself. Break forth, then, stands in place of, Pour forth a voice of gladness, because now your children have been fulfilled to you—both prophets, and teachers, and sons of God from you—and you have given birth to the whole inhabited world, not one nation only, as the synagogue of the Jews did.

²⁸ But we, brethren, are children of promise, after the manner of Isaac. But just as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also now. The Church, he says, being barren like Sarah, not only became the mother of many children as Sarah did, but also gave birth freely as she did. For just as it was not nature, but the promise, that made her a mother (for he who said, At this season I will come, the Word, entering into the womb, fashioned the infant), so indeed also in our case, as has been said above, divine words effect the refashioning—the words pronounced over the baptismal font. Then, lest anyone should say: And what kind of freedom is this, when the Jews scourge the believers, and those who seem to be free are persecuted?—he says that even then it happened so. For indeed Ishmael persecuted Isaac; yet nevertheless nothing hindered the persecuted one from being the genuine son of Abraham, and the master of his persecutor. And so from this very thing—the being persecuted by the Jews—is shown both our likeness to Isaac and our kinship with Abraham.

²⁹ But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the son of the bondwoman; for the son of the bondwoman shall by no means inherit with the son of the freewoman. Lest anyone should say: What then? Is it a comfort to the faithful who are now persecuted by the Hebrews, that Isaac too was persecuted at that time?—he says: Hear what the Scripture says, and then you will be comforted. For in return for the temporary persecution with which he persecuted Isaac, he is cast out completely; and not only does the being cast out suffice him as punishment, but rather the not becoming a partaker of the things prepared for the child. Which is also the greater punishment, having taken its force from the judgment and decision of God, and not from the persecution. See how it is not the son of Abraham, but the son of the bondwoman, that he names the one not deemed worthy to inherit, calling him by the more lowly lineage. Consider, then, that he showed the law itself introducing its own dissolution, if indeed all the things that were said, being types of the things now coming to pass, are recorded in the law—that is, in the book of the Old Testament.

³⁰ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the freewoman. He sets all these things in motion in order to show that what is now coming to pass concerning us was prefigured many ages before. How, then, is it not absurd that, having obtained freedom so many years before, we should again willingly become servants?